A political movement predicated on opposition must adapt to having one of its own in City Hall.
NEW YORK — New York City’s democratic socialists — adept organizers and fluent in the politics of protest — must now add an unfamiliar label to their repertoire: Bureaucrat.
In the wake of mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s win, the city’s Democratic Socialists of America and other factions of the institutional left are helping staff up City Hall with the aim of creating a new generation of civil servants who can run a sprawling bureaucracy with a leftist mindset.
For now, the list of socialists with resumes fit for top administration jobs is short. But Mamdani’s allies are positioning themselves to learn from more seasoned veterans so that one day they can take the reins of government.
“He wants to bring in experienced government experts that share his values and new, bright rising stars who haven’t yet had their chance,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler, co-chair of the body’s progressive caucus. “That’s going to be a great mix because you need fresh perspectives, and you need people who have been through this before — that combination will position us most effectively for success.”
It also presents many challenges.
As battle-tested government officials know well, the city’s byzantine structure — held fast by civil service rules and union contracts — is resistant to the type of wholesale change Mamdani alluded to in his fiery election-night victory speech. Moderate Democrats and Republicans across the country will be watching New York City closely for any slip-ups they can use to write off the democratic socialist experiment set to commence in the new year. And Mamdani’s key stakeholders — not only the DSA but the Working Families Party and major labor unions — will need to manage ideological divisions and varying priorities as they seek to support the fledgling administration from the outside.
During the campaign, Mamdani kept the DSA at arm’s length. The organization, in turn, gave him more leeway to deviate from socialist orthodoxy, allowing him to build a broader — and winning — coalition. How that dynamic might evolve in practice next year is an open question. But Mamdani himself has been a DSA member since 2017. And as with any new administration seeking talent, mayors tend to look toward their own.
The opportunity poses an existential question for Mamdani, the movement that made him and the direction of the Democratic Party: Can the left effectively govern the nation’s largest city?
Grace Mausser, co-chair of the DSA’s New York City chapter, said her organization will ensure the answer is yes.
“The primary goals are to have a successful mayoralty, deliver for New Yorkers and achieve the things Zohran laid out,” she said of promises like universal childcare and free buses. “But there is also an opportunity over the course of the next four, maybe eight years to develop new leaders in city government. De Blasio did that with a lot of progressives, and Zohran has the opportunity to do that for a lot of socialists.”
How that might look in practice was on display Monday when Mamdani announced two senior members of his team: incoming First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan, a warhorse of city and state government who held the same position under former Mayor Bill de Blasio, and Elle Bisgaard-Church, a young democratic socialist and Mamdani’s closest aid in the state Assembly and campaign. She will serve as Mamdani’s chief of staff.
While Bisgaard-Church is far closer to Mamdani, wrangling New York City’s vast executive branch — let alone goading it toward systemic change — requires extensive knowledge of internal politics and the ways agencies and budget wonks sometimes resist the whims of City Hall. That’s where the Fuleihans of the world come in: If you don’t know how to effectively run the government, it will end up running you.
“The mayor-elect understands that we need the hunger and vision for bold solutions and deep experience to enact our affordability agenda and build a city government that delivers excellent public services,” Mamdani spokesperson Dora Pekec said in a statement.
The inclusion of more experienced public servants — Mamdani wants NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch to remain at the department and has tapped other government experts to lead his transition team — also speaks to a shallow bench of candidates who are both aligned with the left and qualified to take on major administration roles.
“A lot of the work of the WFP and DSA has focused on winning power in the City Council and on the state level,” said Ana María Archila, co-director of WFP’s New York chapter. “So there are people who understand the powers of the legislative branch, but there are definitely fewer people who are holding executive power.”
“I think Zohan’s administration is going to accelerate a lot of the learning and capacity of our side to not just be able to legislate, but to also administer and execute a governing agenda,” she added.
When coupled with a new nonprofit seeking to harness the power of Mamdani’s volunteer army and municipal labor unions who supported Mamdani in the general election, the various elements of the city’s institutional left stand to form a coercive tool that will provide the mayor-elect with far more power than any of his immediate predecessors.
“The ability to generate bodies and phone calls and rallies and busloads of people going to the state Capitol is a tremendous asset to anyone in elected office, but especially the mayor of New York City, who has to convince skeptical power brokers in Albany to get on board with what the mayor wants to accomplish,” said Democratic strategist Jon Paul Lupo.
In the past, the various elements that make up that force have not always been aligned: The DSA and WFP have endorsed competing candidates in local and federal races. And in 2018, labor unions left the local WFP chapter and have been on opposite sides of issues like a proposed Amazon headquarters in Queens in 2019.
This time, they are hoping to minimize their differences. The DSA recently created a working group called The People’s Majority, which counts several left-leaning organizations — including affiliates of the WFP but not the party itself — as members. The group is planning various issue campaigns to pressure Albany to raise taxes on the wealthy and is consulting with experts to tailor its push for Mamdani’s universal childcare proposal.
Separately, the WFP is planning to incorporate Mamdani’s goals into an agenda called the Working Families Guarantee, which will be part of their endorsement criteria. And they plan to convene sitting elected officials affiliated with the party to develop strategies on how to advance Mamdani’s proposals through the city and state budget. According to Archila, their advocacy will also have to mature, casting a bigger tent and attempting to win over legislators who might not consider themselves progressives or socialists but will support the cause regardless.
“When one of our people is governing, it is not enough to protest and have good actions. We have to have a strategy to win a majority — and that’s challenging and it’s new,” Archila said. “We have less muscle and less practice with that than just pushing from the outside.”